fern) 


Ouke  University  Libraries 

Circular  letter 

Conf  Pam  q#17 


CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 

I  Department  of  Justice, 

Richmond,  October  82,    [862. 

CIRCULAR    LETTER    TO    DISTRICT    ATTORNEYS,  AND  TO  RECEIVERS  UNDER  THE 

SEQUESTRATION  ACT. 

The  Acl  of  the  thirtieth  of  August,  1861,  declares  thai  certain  property  "held, 
owned,  possessed,  or  enjoyed  by,  or  tor  any  alien  enemy,  since  the  2ls1  day  of  May  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  B'xty-onc,"  is  thereby  sequestrated,  ami  that  it  shall  he  held 
lor  the  lull  indemnity  of  a  class  of  persons  therein  specified.  The  Ac  vested  the  property 
iu  the  Confederate  States,  and  declared  a  trust,  and  you  are  instructed  to  proceed  in  all 
cases,  in  which  that  trust  seems  to  he  impaired  by  subsequent  legislation,  as  if  m>  such  le- 
gislation ha<l  been  made.  The  object  is  to  settle  judicially  the  constitutionality  of  such 
subsequent   legislat  ion, 

Instances  wherein  the  trust  seems  to  be  impaired  by  the  amendatory  Acl  of  the  loth 
February,  I  862,  readily  occur  :  as  the  seventh  section  thereof,  which  gives  the  property  of 
certain  alien  enemies  to  the  next  of  kin.  Independently  of  any  trust,  the  section  is  a  nul- 
lity. It'  the  property  bo  not  sequestrated,  it  remains  in  the  alien  enemy  :  if  sequestrated, 
the  title  is  in  the  Confederate  States,  ami  the  Congress  cannot  make  j;-if'ts  nor  grant  boun- 
ties. 

The  fourth  section  of  the  amendatory  Act  seems  also  to  he  violative  of  the  trust,  as  in 
contravention  of  the  original  Act.  it  exempts  iron  sequestration  property  transferred  by  an 
alien  enemy  to  a  citizen  of  the  Confederate  States,  prior  to  the  .'Kith  August,  1861  :  ami  so 
of  the  sixth  section  of  the  amendatory  Act,  if  it  shall  appear  that  it  limits  the  class  of 
persons  known  as  alien  enemies,  at   the  time  the  first    Act    was    approved.         Hut  these    are 

uiven  merely  as  instances,  the  better  to  call  the  whole  subject  to  your  careful  consideration. 

WADE  KEYES, 

Acting  Attorney  Hi  mini. 


pe«nulife. 

pHS.5 


